The Price of Owning a Car — Any Car — Rose over the Last Year

(LATimes.com) — As with many things nowadays, the cost of owning a car went up over the last year, AAA said Thursday.

The average cost to operate a medium-sized automobile — such as a Ford Fusion or a Honda Accord — increased 4.8% in the last 12 months, according to AAA’s annual “Your Driving Cost” study. Based on driving 15,000 miles a year, it costs 47.6 cents a mile, or $9,519 a year, to operate a mid-size car, the study said.

Other models haven’t gotten any cheaper either. Small-car owners paid an average of 43.3 cents a mile, or $6,496 a year, on the same 15,000 miles-a-year scale, the study said. That category — made up of Chevrolet Cobalts, Nissan Sentras and similar-sized rides — rang up the smallest increase: 2.9%.